


Amaranth the Hobbit

by quiltedog



Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: F/M, Hobbits
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-14
Updated: 2014-11-14
Packaged: 2018-02-25 07:31:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2613503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quiltedog/pseuds/quiltedog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a story about a hobbit named Amaranth. It takes place several years after The Lord of the Rings trilogy. She works at The Green Dragon where she meets Merry, and the story goes from there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Amaranth!” Griffo Proudfoot shouted. Its Amaranth’s last hour of her shift at The Green Dragon. She could hardly wait to get off. Griffo had been there all day harassing her, calling her endlessly back to his table with some pathetic excuse for need of assistance. He’d even grabbed her and pulled her onto his lap several times. But Fastred, the Barkeep didn’t say anything. He knew better than to interfere with Griffo Proudfoot. His family came out rather well after the saving of the shire. He’s never done anything violent, but he got the girl before Amaranth fired because she slapped him when he grabbed her behind. So Amaranth grudgingly made her way back to his table. “Amaranth Smallburrow, has anyone ever told you that you are the most beautiful Hobbit around?” Griffo said as he pulled Amaranth in and sat her on his lap.   
“I’m still working” Amaranth said as she struggled to stand up.   
“Well I need to order, so why don’t you stay here for a while to listen to what I need.” Griffo said with a crooked smile on his face. “Though I still need a little to decide,” He said and let out a laugh. His friends started laughing too. “Calm down. I’m not going to hurt you!”  
“I need to keep working or I’ll lose my job.” Amaranth said, trying to think of a valid excuse to get away. “And making a girl lose her job is not a way to get her to like you.”   
“Fine,” Griffo said with a sneer, which made Amaranth worry about what he was thinking. “What time is your precious job over at?”  
“Um...” Amaranth was debating on whether or not to tell him the truth, but figured that Griffo could make things hard for her family if she didn’t do what he wanted. “In about an hour or so,” Amaranth said looking down at her hands.  
“Well, then I would be honored it you would accompany me on my evening stroll.” Griffo said with a sic smile. “Seeing as you get off at about the same time that I go every night, In figure I could walk you home. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to the loveliest hobbit in the entire Shire.” With that, Griffo let go of Amaranth and Went back to drinking his ale.  
Amaranth quickly went back to work, and tried to not look over at Griffo’s table, because every time she did she could see him looking at her, and then he would smile at her and wave. The rest of Amaranths shift seem to crawl by. She hoped that all he wanted was to just walk her home, without any detours.   
Finally her shift ended and she hung up her apron in the back. She waited just a minute to prepare herself for having to deal with Griffo. She walked over to his table. By that time, all of his friends had left, or had gone to sit by the fire and listen to the stories. The famous Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took were telling their adventuring stories, and enjoying all the free drinks that everyone was buying them.   
“I’m off, Master Griffo.” Amaranth said as she came up to Griffo, whose head was down on the table. She hoped that he was asleep so that she could just leave without him.  
“Good!” Griffo said, as he sat up and yawned. “Let’s get this pretty little hobbit back to her house” He said as he stood up and pulled her in close. Amaranth leaned back so that he would hopefully not kiss her. He let go and held out his arm. Amaranth took it and they walked towards the door. As they were leaving she heard Peregrin telling everyone that it was time for them to go. There was a collective sigh and a lot of mumbling. Amaranth caught Meriadoc’s eye as she walked by. He smiled at her, but she quickly looked down. She hoped that Griffo had not seen him smile at her. She looked over at him and he seemed more focused on getting out the door, and pushing all of the hobbits out of the way.   
Once outside, Griffo let out a large sigh. “Some fresh air will do us good Camellia!”  
“It’s Amaranth” Amaranth said, as she started to get a sick feeling in her stomach. Camellia was the last girl before her, who got fired and her whole family moved to the other side of the shire.   
The walked a little ways before Griffo turned off the road and towards farmer Greenhand’s corn field.  
“Let’s take a shortcut shall we?” Griffo said, though he was stumbling a little because he had too much to drink.   
“I think I can walk home myself!” Amaranth said letting go and starting to move away. She didn’t like where this was going. As she moved away Griffo grabbed her arm and puller her next to him. He was surprisingly strong for someone his size, and that intoxicated. Amaranth tried to pull away, but struggled in vain.   
“Everything all right here?” A voice asked from behind them. It was dark and so it as a hard to see who had said it.   
“Everything’s fine!” Griffo shouted, “Just go about your business.”  
“Help,” Shouted Amaranth, fearing that the hobbit would walk away, believing Griffo. Griffo put a hand in front of her mouth to muffle her.   
“Now you listen here!” Whispered Griffo to her, “You keep quite! Or I’ll see that neither you nor your family ever makes any money in this town again.” Amaranth stood still. Suddenly Griffo was pulled off her and thrown to the ground. Amaranth could see now that there were two hobbits. One of them sat on Griffo and held him down, while the other one came over to her.   
“Are you all right?” Amaranth recognized them now. It was Peregrin and Meriadoc.  
“Yes, Master Meriadoc” Amaranth said, looking down at her hands. She felt embarrassed that the two most famous hobbits of the shire had come to her help.  
“It’s just Merry, and he’s Pippin. Did he hurt you?” Merry asked. Griffo was yelling for someone to help him trying to get Pippin off of him. Pippin didn’t seem to have any problem at all holding him down.  
“No, he didn’t”  
“Then why did you yell for help?” Pippin asked. Griffo seemed to have given up and was just laying quietly on the ground now.  
“I was just scared.” Amaranth answered, almost wishing that she hadn’t yelled out. “I’m awfully sorry to have troubled you.”  
“It’s no trouble at all.” Merry said. “Griffo seems to have quite a name around here. Pippin let him up now.” Pippin stood up. Griffo jumped straight off and ran off into the cornfield. “Well he sure seemed to want to get away. Don’t worry; he should be leaving you alone for a while.” Merry and Pippin laughed. “Let us walk you home, uh…”  
“My name’s Amaranth.” Amaranth said. She was beginning to get worried about what Griffo would do because of what happened tonight. She was wondering on whether or not to tell Merry and Pippin about the danger she had put her and her family in.   
“That’s a lovely name.” Pippin said.   
“Thank you, uh, Pippin.” Amaranth said, doing a little curtsy. “I hope that he leaves me alone, but he can really get people in trouble.”  
“What does he do?” asked Merry.  
“He, uh, threatened to make it so neither my family nor I ever work around here. And my pa’s been real sick, so then we’d have to move to another town, to be able to make money and get him help.”  
“Well, we won’t let him do anything like that to you, or your family.” Merry said. Pippin nodded in agreement.   
“Thank you.” Amaranth said, looking down at her hands. She was used to not being addressed as an equal. Not that she was treated like she was deeply beneath anyone, but she wasn’t used to being an equal. Merry and Pippin walked Amaranth back to her hobbit hole. Her little sister, Marigold, was out in the front playing with her goat. When she saw Amaranth, she ran out to gate to greet her. “You’re out late!” Amaranth said as she gave her a hug. Marigold just giggled, but froze when she saw Merry and Pippin.   
“Hey there little lady,” Pippin said, bending down to Marigold’s eye level. “Nice to meet you, I’m Pippin.” He held out his hand to her, but Marigold just hid her face in Amaranth’s skirt. Pippin just laughed and stood back up, then reaching into his pack pulled out a little horse figurine. “Do you like horses?” Marigold looked up at him, and nodded. “Well, I’ll give you this one, but first, you have to tell me your name.” Marigold’s eyes lit up when she saw the white figurine, glowing in the moonlight.   
“Go on,” Said Amaranth, “tell him what your name is.” Marigolds eyes grew a little bigger and looked up at her sister pleadingly. “No, you can do it. You know your name plenty well enough.”  
Marigold turned towards Pippin. “Marigold.” She said. Her voice was barely audible.   
“Well, Marigold, as promised, her you go!” Pippin said while handing her the figurine. Marigold’s whole face lit up as she gently took it from his hands.   
“Thank you, sir!” Marigold said, and with that she ran into the house shouting, “Papa, Papa!”  
“Thank you!” Amaranth said to them, “For saving me and for helping my sister. She’s been having a hard time with how sick my Pa’s been.”  
“It was our pleasure,” said Pippin, bowing to Amaranth.  
“Just let us know if Griffo gives you anymore trouble.” Merry said also bowing. Amaranth was glad that it was dark so that they couldn’t see her blush. With that, the two hobbits continued down the road, singing as they went.


	2. Chapter 2

Amaranth didn’t hear anything from Griffo until a week later. The Green Dragon was packed, and she was hard at work trying to serve everyone in a timely manner. She looked up from a table just as Griffo and some of his friends walked in. Amaranth asked Berylla Goodchild, the other server, if she could serve them. Berylla agreed to right away, she knew all about Griffo and the events of last week. Everyone knew about what happened last week; Amaranth being saved from Griffo by Master Meriadoc and Master Pippin. There was some laughter going around the inn, and all of the different wild fantasies that different hobbits had cooked up were being retold. Several Hobbits tried to ask Amaranth some questions about what happened, but she just deflected their questions saying that she had to get back to work. Griffo and his friends stayed late into the night, until after most of the other hobbits had left. They were still there as it was getting close to Amaranth to go home. She was nervous that they were waiting for her.   
When it was getting closer for Amaranth to leave, Fastred ushered Griffo and his friends out, claiming that they had been there too long without buying any food or drink. Griffo and his friends went outside without any argument. After a little bit Berylla checked outside and told Amaranth and Fastred that Griffo and his friends were waiting out front.  
“Take the back exit Amaranth.” Fastred told her. “They won’t be watching that.”  
“I’ll walk you home,” Berylla volunteered, “It’s on the way so it won’t be any trouble.”  
“Thank you Berylla,” Amaranth said. “I would greatly appreciate that.” So Berylla and Amaranth snuck out the back entrance and started walking back to Amaranth’s hobbit hole. They walked through the back roads until they got near to Farmer Greenhand’s fields. They hadn’t said a word, in fear that Griffo or one of his friends would hear them.  
“Let’s walk through the fields, then we will have some cover,” Berylla suggested. “Farmer Greenhand is a friend of my father’s so he won’t mind.”  
“Alright,” Amaranth said, looking around nervously.  
“Oy!” Someone said behind them. Amaranth and Berylla twirled around, terrified that Griffo and his friend’s had found them.   
They let out a sigh of relief. It was just Masters Merry and Pippin.   
“Good evening!” Amaranth said. Berylla just stood there, in shock. She had never met the famous hobbits. She had seen them sometimes at the Green Dragon, but they were always surrounded by a crowd of hobbits who wouldn’t let her near to hand them drinks. The hobbits would just hand the drinks forward.   
“Amaranth, right?” Pippin said, as they walked over to them.   
“Yes sir.” Amaranth said.  
“We told you we’re just Merry and Pippin. Calling us sir just makes us feel old.” Merry said, laughing a little.   
“Sorry, Merry.” Amaranth said, turning red. “What brings you over to these parts?”  
“We’re just in the area and were going to throw a party, it’s a special anniversary for us.” Pippin said, with a huge grin on his face.   
“That sounds fun.” Amaranth said. “Will it be at the Green Dragon?”  
“Yes, “said Merry, clearing his throat. “Would you guys like to come?”  
Berylla made some unintelligible noise.   
“Is that a yes?” Pippin asked, laughing. He went over and patted Berylla on the back. “Don’t worry; we’re just like every other hobbit, but taller and stronger!” Pippin told her. Merry and Pippin burst out laughing.  
“We’d be honored.” Amaranth said, doing a little curtsey. Amaranth assumed that they wanted them to be the servers. She wasn't sure that she really wanted to serve at a party like that, but it would be cool to see the other people that would come. They’ve had a party like this every year for the last couple years and lots of outsiders and other hobbits from all over the shire come to it. Berylla just smiled at them awkwardly.   
“Great!” Merry said. “The more the merrier!” Pippin and Merry laughed again. “Well we’ll see you there then!” Merry said as they walked away. Amaranth and Berylla just stood there as the two walked away singing, foreign songs, until the two hobbits had disappeared, and all they could hear was their faint singing in the distance.  
“We’re going to serve at their party?” Berylla asked, a huge grin on her face.   
"I guess so," Amaranth said.   
"I hope that it's not too busy and so we'll get to actually talk with them." Berylla said, giggling at the thought of spending time with Merry and Pippin.  
"That is, if you can talk," Amaranth said laughing. Berylla glared at Amaranth but then broke into laughter. "Come on," Amaranth said, "I'm ready to go home."


End file.
